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| Art by Juan Ochoa |
The first Spindle was found spinning around its vertical axis in a tiny river bay on Kepler-22B. It was floating 0.5 M above the water, just offshore, where a small river dips slightly into the SW face of Hex 113.72 (Sector I-5).
The survey team from the Yrkoon Corporation wanted to capture the Spindle, and tried just about everything to get it to stop spinning. A spindle has too many sharp edges to handle while it is in motion. The survey team cast radio and laser signals at it. They struck it with bamboo-like reeds growing in the nearby jungles. Fired several 9 mm ballistic rounds at the device. (These were stopped by a force screen of some kind.) Finally, the survey team tried Screaming at the Spindle with a sonic amplification weapon. This also failed, although the Spindle's gemlike aperture began to glow an angry red.
Then one of the survey team cursed in frustration: "Leche!"
The device responded with a stream of Tagalog curses, and began firing some kind of beam weapon at each of the survey team members.
The party ran away, and then stumbled their way back into the jungle. Within a few minutes, they realized they were lost, recovered their bearings and proceeded back to camp. Only much, much later did the survey crew piece together that they had encountered something strange in the bay. The team discovered this by reviewing video footage of their encounter in Hex 113.72. They also found that their radio communications and computer systems had been hacked during their earlier trip to the river bay.
When the crew stealthily returned to the site of their earlier encounter, there was no longer any sign of the Spindle.
A century later, more Spindles arrived on Kepler-22B. They came on-board Bituin Commonwealth trade vessels from the Sultanate of Managdao. Apparently, the Sultanate had discovered the source of the mysterious devices, and by that point had learned a great deal about how to establish a symbiosis with them.
Sector I-5 logo courtesy of Hereticwerks
I am really digging this. Thank you so much for putting it together!
ReplyDeleteI've added this to my Best Reads of the Week series I've been doing to help draw attention to some of the best stuff I've run across. You're welcome to check it out at the following link:
http://dyverscampaign.blogspot.com/2013/12/best-reads-of-week-december-7-20.html
Thanks so much, Charles! We're having fun with this little series! And it really made my day when I discovered over my morning mocha that you had featured us on your Best Reads post! Much appreciated!
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